This invention has relation to cartridges, cassettes and light-tight packages of rolls of light-sensitive material. Particularly, the invention has relation to a cartridge which can be useful for storing and dispensing light-sensitive web materials. The invention also has relation to cartridges into which light-sensitive web materials can be conveniently and safely loaded and reloaded as many times as desired in conditions of extremely low light or no light at all.
It is well known to store rolls of web-like, light-sensitive, photographic materials in light-tight cassettes and for dispensing the material through a slit in the cassette. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,777 granted to Van Gayte et al on Mar. 29, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,658 granted to Buelens et al on July 1, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,232 granted to Engelsmann et al on Nov. 13, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,076 granted to Birkeland on June 19, 1984, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,845 granted to Buelens et al, on Sept. 13, 1983, for example.
It is known to make such cassettes to include two interlocking half-cylindrical segments supporting a spool of photo sensitive material on bearings provided by those interlocking segments, and to provide a light slit or slot having strips of light-excluding compressible material such as velvet or felt ribbon to line the slot to prevent any light leak back through the slot into the cassette or cartridge. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,914 granted to Buelens on Oct. 14, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,247 granted to Bouwen et al on Jan. 10, 1978; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,584 granted to Mangan on Mar. 23, 1976.
Most of the film storage rolls, cassettes and cartridges developed before the present invention were either designed to fit into cavities, in particular, cameras or were designed to simply hold the material for later loading into a camera. Such structures have caused greater or lesser difficulties over the years in getting the photographic materials into such cameras either in such cassettes and cartridges or in moving the photographic material from the light-tight packaging into the camera. Much of the prior art deals with cassettes or cartridges which are designed for but a single use, and, therefore, were often made of light and inexpensive materials to cut down the initial cost and reduce the amount of waste involved in discarding them after such use.
What was needed before the present invention was a compact sturdy cartridge, designed to be used in industrial and commercial handling and processing of relatively wide light-sensitive web materials; which cartridge can be recycled, reloaded and reused indefinitely; and into which light-sensitive web material can easily be loaded and/or reloaded in conditions of very low light or of no light at all.